“What was that?” she asked, her eyes wide and her hands shaking.
“Zealot,” he said. “We have to hurry.” If there were zealots looking for him, and for Adryel, then they had some kind of connection to the whole mess.
Just perfect.
She didn’t ask any more questions as he led her further down the tunnel toward a private entrance he knew.
They moved quickly past the other doors and businesses along the tunnel. The lights illuminated the private entrances that only a select clientele could use. Not many came back here.
Stron hadn’t been in years. But he had no time to reminisce, he needed to get her to safety, and soon.
Khalzin would be putting out a security team for her if he didn’t reach back out and let him know they were safe. Which right now, was a question.
An occasional door would open, and the loudness of whatever business was on the other side blared into the corridor for a moment until the door sealed shut again.
Each one gave Stron pause, even though no one seemed to pay either of them any mind.
The lights dimmed to a single yellow light at the end, a safety light that shined against the rocks. A ladder was attached to the stone, and as they approached it, she stared.
“Am I climbing that?” she whispered.
“Do you not like ladders?” he asked.
“I don’t like ones that look like they’re older than my grandmother.”
They reached the ladder and the yellow light, and he touched a rock on the wall. It revealed a scanner pad.
He touched his hand to the scanner.
The stone and the ladder shifted to the side, revealing a door. A more secured door, not something carved out of the cave, but something that had been forced into the stone. The kind of blast door that would keep a citricite bomb at bay.
“What is this?” she asked.
“A back door,” he replied, and ran his hand over the panel on the wall next to the door.
It glowed green for a moment, before the heavy door released.
He pulled it open, and was greeted by two guards.
Adryel froze.
“Gol-Vett,” the first guard said, and stepped aside.
“We need a room,” Stron said.
The guard nodded. He pulled out a data panel and held it up. Stron touched it, and it lit green. The guard grumbled an approval and led them through the hallway, an extreme change to the cave they were just inside. This had squared walls, proper lights, smooth flooring, and an opulence that wasn’t seen in the Underground.
“Where are we?” Adryel asked. Her eyes darted around. “Did we just walk into a palace or something?”
He glanced at her. “It’s an exclusive location.”
“I kinda figured,” she muttered as they walked. The guards were covering them, one in front and one in back as they walked through the long hallway.
Light illuminated the walls, these hallways structured and framed with ornate fabrics covering the stone, not carved out of the rock. The floor was soft, covered in an absorbing carpeting to keep sound down.
The walls had a row of trim through the middle, and Adryel raised her hand, caressing it.
“It’s wood,” she whispered. “And fabric.” She stroked the material on the walls.
